1 Towards a Critical Social Theory of Philanthropy in an Era of ...

social policy represents and whether philanthropy serves either to cement marginality or if it has
the potential to act as a transformative agent for social change. We are thus concerned that the
surface debate about who ought to deliver social policy disguises the issues that social policy
represents. That governance loses sight of issues such as social equity as it reduces discussion
about and therefore depoliticizes the causes of the needs addressed by social policy (Fraser,
1989), is also of concern in this paper.
To this end, we begin with an overview of governance as the most recent manifestation of
the way in which we have dealt with the creation and implementation of social policy in the
United States (and increasingly abroad). Next, we specifically address the relationship between
philanthropy and governance through the lens of critical social theory. We use Ryan’s (1982)
discussion of affirmative social theory and Agger’s (1989) theory of fast capitalism as a means to
better understand how philanthropy in an era of governance acts to stabilize affirmative social
theory and how it has come to be regarded uncritically. We conclude with a call to reframe our
discussion of philanthropy and governance at the level of systemic social change. Our hope is
that this framing will open a space for alternative dialogue about the neglected issue of
marginality rather than to necessarily provide a prescription for social action.
Governance and Social Policy
Governance is increasingly and uncritically “regarded as an effective and legitimate form
of societal governance” (Sorensen & Torfing 2005, 205). As noted above, the question of what
governance means, both theoretically and in practice, is still being debated; however, Pierre
(2000) discusses the general assumptions of governance as:
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